Pronounced Doctor Honoris Causa at University of audiovisual arts ESRA

Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, (born December 11, 1908) is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and continues to make an average of one film per year past the age of 100. In March 2008 he was reported to be the oldest active film director in the world, and is possibly the second oldest film director ever after George Abbott. He is also the only filmmaker whose active career has spanned from the silent era to the digital age. Among his numerous awards are two Career Golden Lions from the Venice Film Festival.Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 18.01.2008

Jiří Menzel (born February 23, 1938, Prague) is a Czech film director, theatre director, actor, and screenwriter. His films often combine a humanistic view of the world with sarcasm and provocative cinematography. Some of these films are adapted from works by Czech writers such as Bohumil Hrabal and Vladislav Vančura. He became famous in 1967, when his first feature film, Closely Watched Trains, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His controversial film Larks on a String was filmed in 1969, but was initially banned by the [Czechoslovakia] government. It was finally released in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime. The film won the Golden Bear at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival. Menzel was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film again in 1986 with his dark comedy My Sweet Little Village. In 1987, he was a member of the jury at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 24.03.2009

Charles Aznavour (born 22 May 1924) is a French and Armenian singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world. Charles Aznavour is known for his unique tenor voice: clear and ringing in its upper reaches, with gravelly and profound low notes. He has appeared in more than sixty movies, composed about a thousand songs (including at least 150 in English, 100 in Italian, 70 in Spanish, and 50 in German), and sold well over 100 million records. In 1998, Charles Aznavour was named Entertainer of the Century by CNN and users of Time Online from around the globe. He was recognized as the century's outstanding performer, with nearly 18% of the total vote, edging out Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan. He has sung for presidents, popes, and royalty, as well as at humanitarian events, and is the founder of the charitable organization Aznavour for Armenia along with his long-time friend impresario Levon Sayan. In 2009 he was appointed ambassador of Armenia to Switzerland, as well as Armenia's permanent delegate to the United Nations at Geneva. He started his new Aznavour en Toute Intimité tour in 2011. Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 02.07.2009

Boro Drašković, born May 29, 1935 in Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia is a Serbian director, playwright and screenwriter. Boro Drašković, graduating from Belgrade's Academy of Theater, Film, Radio, and Television in 1959. Drašković entered the film industry as an assistant to Polish director Andrzej Wajda in 1962. Four years later, he assisted Jerzy Kawalerowicz. Drašković sold his first screenplay in 1964. In 1969, he made his first fictional feature film, Horoscope, and subsequently made three more features, all of which he co-scripted. In addition, Drašković has made documentaries and worked on television and radio; he has also written several books on cinema and theater. In theater, he explained the most important works in a wide arc from Aeschylus to Beckett, along with Shakespeare, Molière, Chekhov, and Serbia's own classic Domanović, Petar Kočić, Danilo Kiš. He has directed several TV movies and TV documentaries: Tobacco road, Kitchen, Belgrade children, Maria, Interview with Laxness... He is the author of several books on acting and directing: Change, Labyrinth, Mirror, The paradox of the director, the Monkey King... Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 31.05.2010

Predrag "Miki" Manojlović (born April 5, 1950, Belgrade, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia) is a Serbian actor, famous for his starring roles in some of the most important films of former Yugoslav cinema. Since the early 1990s, he successfully branched out into movies made outside the Balkans, meaning that he's currently active in productions all over Europe. At February 2009 the Serbian Government established him as a president of the Serbian Film Center. He grew up in a family of stage actors - father Ivan Manojlović and mother Zorka Doknić. After his screen debut in 1970, young Predrag continued to appear in numerous films and TV dramas made in SFR Yugoslavia, some of which, like the 1975 TV series Grlom u jagode where he memorably played Miki Rubiroza, achieved cult status. He is arguably best known for the role of the father in Emir Kusturica's 1985 film When Father Was Away on Business and as a tragic opportunist in 1995's Underground (also by Kusturica). He is known for his versatility which helped him make a strong impression both in starring and character roles, as well as dramas and comedies, with his small role in the 1992 hit comedy Mi nismo anđeli being an example of the latter. He played the role of Agostino Tassi in the 1997 film Artemisia and that of Miki in Irina Palm. During the NATO bombardments in 1999, Miki said: "Westerners must understand that no one can constraint anybody, which the Balkans need to live their own life with their own multiplicity of cultures, religions, languages. They must understand that they should not worsen the situation with their own frustrations and their ideas which do not function, that the more bombs will fall in Yugoslavia, the less safety will there be in Europe."Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 11.03.2011

Jean-Claude Carrière (born 17 September 1931, Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France) is a screenwriter and actor. Alumnus of the École normale supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he was a frequent collaborator with Luis Buñuel. He was president of La Fémis, the French state film school. He wrote a novel when he was 23 then was introduced to Jacques Tati who had him write short novels based on his films. Through Tati he meet Pierre Etaix who he wrote and directed several films with including Heureux Anniversaire that they won the academy award for. His nineteen year collaboration with Buñuel began with the film Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), for which he co-wrote the screenplay (with Buñuel) and also played the part of a village priest. Carrière and the director would collaborate on the scripts of nearly all Buñuel's later films, including Belle de Jour (1967), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972), The Phantom of Liberty (1974), That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) and The Milky Way (1969). He also wrote screenplays for The Tin Drum (1979), Danton (1983), The Return of Martin Guerre (1982), La dernière image (1986), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), Valmont (1989), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), Birth (2004), and Goya's Ghosts, and co-wrote Max, Mon Amour (1986) with director Nagisa Oshima. He also collaborated with Peter Brook on a nine-hour stage version of the ancient Sanskrit epic The Mahabharata, and a five-hour film version. His work in television includes the series Les aventures de Robinson Crusoë (1964), a French-West German production much seen overseas. In 2006 he played the lead role in Macedonian-French movie "The Secret Book" (writen by Jordan Plevnes and Ljube Cvetanovski), directed by Vlado Cvetanovski. Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 28.06.2011

Abdulah Sidran (October 2, 1944 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina), often referred to by his nickname Avdo, is a Bosnian writer and poet who is renowned for his screenplays and dramas. His major works include Šahbaza, Bone and meat, The Sarajevo tomb (Sarajevski tabut), Why is Venice sinking (Zašto tone Venecija), several books of poetry, and screenplays for award-winning movies from the Former Yugoslavia, such as the Oscar-nominated When Father Was Away on Business and Do You Remember Dolly Bell?, directed by Emir Kusturica; and Kuduz and The Perfect Circle, directed by Ademir Kenović.[6] His opus is characterized by a soft and soothing sensibility, where tragedy, meditativity and a specific and humorous irony change sides and play tricks on each other more often than not. After spending most of his life in Sarajevo, Sidran recently moved to a small village near Goražde where he currently lives.Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 18.10.2011

Slobodan Šnajder (born July 8, 1948) is a Croatian writer and publicist. Šnajder was born in Zagreb, where graduated in philosophy and English studies from the Faculty of Philosophy. He was co-founder and editor of the theatre journal Prolog as well as editor of the edition published by Cekade. His short stories, essays and plays were published since 1966. From January to June 1993, he was a columnist in daily newspaper Glas Slavonije (Početnica za melankolike), and, since January 1994, in daily newspaper Novi list. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the left-wing magazine Novi Plamen. The Croatian National Theatre of Zagreb (HNK) has already staged the two of his plays, Kamov, smrtopis (Kamov, the Necrography) (1978) and Držićev san (Dream of Držić) (1980), both produced by Ljubiša Ristić. Kamov, smrtopis was staged in March 2003 by the Zagreb Youths' Theatre (ZKM) in the production of Branko Brezovec. A play about Josip Broz Tito, The Bones in Stone, was staged in March 2007 at the National Theatre of Bitola, Republic of Macedonia, directed by Branko Brezovec. During the 1990s - the Franjo Tudjman decade - Šnajder was excluded from the Croatian theatres and his plays were not staged. However, the political suspension did not apply to Europe, so many of his texts were staged in this period: Hrvatski Faust (Croatian Faust) (among other theatres, at the Viennese Burgtheater, and at Theater an den Ruhr directed by Roberto Ciulli); Zmijin svlak (Snakeskin, staged in Tübingen, Mülheim, Frankfurt/Main, Veroli/Rome, Oslo, Kopenhagen, Vienna, Krakow, Dublin, Warsaw, Belgrade); Utjeha sjevernih mora (Comfort of the Northern Seas) (Frankfurt (Oder)); Nevjesta od vjetra (Bride of the Wind) was premièred as a play at the Schauspielhaus Bochum in 1998, produced by Werner Schroeter; The Fifth Gospel, the play about Ustaše concentration camp Stara Gradiška, directed by Branko Brezovec, 2004, Kampnagel, Hamburg, and ZKM, Zagreb. For the last sixteen years, he has been writing political columns, symbolically entitled Opasne veze (Les Liaisons dangereuses), in the daily newspaper published in Rijeka - Novi list. The selection covering the columns written until 1999 was published in the book Kardinalna greška (Cardinal Mistake), while the ones published from 1999 to mid-2004 were collected in another book - Umrijeti pod zvijezdom (To Die Under the Star). His columns, just as his plays, have their advocates and opponents, as well, both today and as it used to be in the 1990s.Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 16.03.2012

Alexander Morfov was born in 1960 in Yambol, Bulgaria. He graduated Puppet Theatre Directing and Cinema Directing at the National Academy of Film and Theatre Studies in Bulgaria. He has staged a number of performances at the National Theatre of Bulgaria, and has also been engaged as its Artistic Director. Morfov has appeared as an actor in several films, and did his debut as film director in 2001. Morfov has also been active in the theatre field in Russia, working as main theatre director at State Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theatre in St. Petersburg, as well as at theatres Et-Cetera and Lenkom in Moscow. Alexander Morfov is easily the most recognizable name in contemporary Bulgarian theatre. In short, his performances are extraordinary, sold out and have earned him dozens of awards. Pronounced for Doctor Honoris Causa of University of audiovisual arts ESRA on 12.02.2013